Robby Gordon Daytona 500 Qualifying Recap

Daytona Beach, FL (February 9, 2009) – Robby Gordon and the No. 7 Jim Beam Camry went out tenth in the qualifying line for the Daytona 500 on Sunday afternoon.

The team picked up speed from their top practice run to post a fast lap of 48.515 seconds. When qualifying had completed, the effort placed the No. 7 Jim Beam Camry 39th position out of the 56 drivers attempting to make the Daytona 500. Gordon will start 20th in the first Gatorade Duel on Thursday afternoon, which will set the starting order for the Daytona 500 grid.

“We didn’t come here to qualify well; we came here to race well,” stated Gordon. “Since we finished in the top-35 last year, we are locked into the Daytona 500, which is a great feeling. In restrictor-plate racing, it doesn’t really matter where you start, it matters where you finish. We came here with a down force car, which will enable us to race well in the draft. Looking at the Shootout last night, that was a good call. We will be good when it is time to go racing.”

The 2009 Season kicks off next week with the Sprint Cup Series’ biggest race of the year, the Daytona 500. Live TV coverage begins at 2:00 p.m. EST on FOX on Sunday, February 15th. Also in preparation of the Daytona 500, the Gatorade Duels will be held on Thursday to help set the starting field. Live television coverage of that event will be on SPEED at 2:00 p.m. EST on Thursday, February 12th.

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ROBBY GORDON, No. 7 Jim Beam Toyota Camry, Robby Gordon Motorsports

Qualified: 39th

How was your qualifying run?

“I think we are okay. This car is the car that we ran basically in the top-10 all last year on all the restrictor plate races. Obviously, converted the nose, the tail, the engine, windows. So we kind of know what the fender shapes are and stuff and we know what kind of time it gives us, but what it really gives us is a good race car. After watching the race last night I believe down force is going to come into play and we’ve got a car that has decent down force. That’s the positive of it, but when you have down force you have drag so you have one or the other. If it’s hot come next Sunday we’re going to have a car that’s decent.”

Did it hurt you being taken out of the last night’s race early?

“Not really, just moral of the team. We started off the season with finishing third at Dakar and then we won Laughlin (Nev.) and just kind of had a lot of momentum coming in here. We knew we weren’t going to qualify well because that was nothing we even focused on. We focused more on the race for the Daytona 500. If we were outside the top-35 we would’ve focused on qualifying more, but we’re not in that situation. With regards to last night, I was bummed myself that we got tangled up in five laps, but if you look at how many wrecks there were they were all about five laps later. Everybody’s cars were out of control so that gives me a lot of confidence going into the 500 this week and knowing the package that we brought for a race car is going to be the right package for the Daytona 500.”
Robby knows that racing well is whats important, and based on the way he runs at RP tracks, I cannot fault him for putting down a shit qualifying lap. He will do his back riding for the majority of the race anyway, so who really cares where he starts?
There is a side bonus for Robby riding in the back,I believe he gains browny points with other teams for dragging straglers around who've lost the drift,ect.

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